After a long 20 days of travel, we finally arrived at Spirit City. Spirit City it can be considered the main city of Spirit Hall, completely controlled by it, it houses two of the three most important building of Spirit Hall, the Supreme Pontiff Palace, a magnificent and huge construction were the Supreme Pontiff lives, and the Spirit Temple, amount all the temples is was the biggest and considered the most important one. It was considered a great honor to simply put a foot in it, it was considered the holy land of every spirit master and something unattainable for non-spirit masters.
The only more prestigious building being the Douluo Palace were the great elder of Spirit Hall resides, but it's very difficult to enter in it. You can only enter with the explicit consent of the great elder, that it was near impossible to obtain, or by attaining the titled douluo rank. When one person obtain that rank, he would go to the Douluo Palace and will receive his title in it, besides a Spirit Hall Writ obtaining the rank of elder of Spirit Hall, with all of its benefits.
Entering, we finally could see how it was the city. There were 3 very easily distinguishable areas, the outer with normal-looking houses, this couldn't be considered the true city as it only was the place where resided slaves and non-spirit masters, its function as a production area for the main city. The other areas were grant, the true city was spirit masters lived and the Supreme Pontiff Palace, its size being half of the city.
For the tournament, they prepared a stadium in front of the Supreme Pontiff Palace. The Supreme Pontiff herself will only be for the final 3 matches. The stadium wasn't so big as the one in Heaven Dou City but it was more luxurious. There wasn't any need to be very big as the competition could only be attended as spectators by spirit masters, so the audience won't surpass the 5.000 people, a lot lower than in the other parts.
Spirit Hall prepared houses for every team to stay there. We arrived at our designed house, leaving there all our things.
"Finally! Tomorrow we will start fighting" said Mayi enthusiastically.
I shook my head "Mayi, as a seeded team, we will skip the first match so tomorrow we won't fight" It took more than half an hour to stop Mayi's wailing.
The next day we all went to the stadium, like in Heaven Dou Empire, there was a little presentation, thank god they did it very quickly, wanting to start the matches as sooner as possible.
The ones at the VIP lounge were the 4 cardinals, they were one the highest-ranking of Spirit Hall, at least politically, the truth is that they didn't have too much power for themselves. The power of Spirit Hall is divided in two, the Supreme Pontiff, considered a sacred being with the most talent and power, with her faction, and the Elders Palace, the join organization of elders, all of them at the titled douluo rank with the final decision in all matters, untouchable by even the Supreme Pontiff. What is the actual power of them, is something unknown, but it is said that they have 6/10 of all titled douluos of the continent.
After the brief introduction, the matches started without rest. In this first round, there was a total of 33 teams, 15 teams plus one seeded of Heaven Dou Empire, 15 teams plus one seeded of Star Luo and the seeded team of Spirit Hall. In this first round, the 3 seeded teams will rest. The matches were 7vs7 matches, were the losers one were eliminated from the competition.
Finishing all the matches, now there were only 18 teams. There wasn't any exiting match at all, as the best team can be considered Shrek and the seeded teams, and the seeded didn't participate, it was normal that there weren't any powerful clash. Knowing the team for the others round it was very easy to know who will win. The only worthy to be mentioned it will be the fact that the Flaming Academy forfeit their match which was against Shrek, Shrek passing the round without the need to fight. Arriving at the Finals and then forfeit was very strange, but it was discovered the reason when it was the turn of the Godwing Academy to fight.
The actual Godwing Academy was a combination of the strongest fighters of the Godwing Academy and the Blazing Academy, now with a full team of 7 spirit ancestors. With this new combination, they increased a lot in power, it commonly knows that fire can be strengthened by the wind. And the combination of firepower plus the assistant of flying spirits master could be a pain in the ass. It was very strange that Spirit Hall accepted this change, so it must be some kind of a deal, the most probable being that they will join Spirit Hall in the future. The new Godwing Academy easily defeated their rivals passing the round.
The next round will be in 2 days, so I decided to take it easy tomorrow, doing a little sightseeing going to sleep soon.
Walking around, there weren't as many shops as in Heaven Dou City and the air of a carnival was no existing. However, the quality of the products made up of its low quantity. There were a lot of products destined only for spirit master, even you could find some rare spirit tools, all their prizes lower than in the empire. As it could be expected of the holy land of the spirit masters.
The most surprising was outside the main city, it was over 20 km away, it was a restricted area. But as part of the team in the finals have permission to enter. The area was a combination of different spaces, with very different conditions that tried to emulate the better mimicry environment. The spaces even have spirits beast emulating better the environment. I inspected a little because curiosity, it must be said that it was a lot better than in my academy, the conditions were more extreme and realistic and there was a lot more variety, wherein my academy there were only 7 different areas, here there were 46.
We so little time to stay here, it wasn't possible to make any noteworthy breakthrough thanks to this, so I thought that this permission was a kind of show-off from Spirit Hall, trying to lure the empires' talents to their side.
When I was leaving the mimicry area I was stopped by a voice "Oh? It isn't Bai?".
I turned to the voice, there was a man, he seemed no older than 35 years, with shining short black hair, with a fit constitution, not very buffed but easily seen that he trained.
Looking at him more attentive, I could finally recognize him "Grandmaster?"
He nodded "We didn't talk a lot, I thought that you won't recognize me" He then looked at me directly, I could sense his gray eyes in me, seeming to see all my secret, even if I knew that the possibility of seeing me was very low due to my spirit and cultivation. After a second, he smiled.
Without me even realizing he moved to my back and patted my shoulder "I owe you one" he said in a low voice. I quickly turned back, not seeing anyone in there, it was like he had been a ghost. I was trembling with cold sweat at my neck. I didn't know if it was true what I saw, he was like a completely different man, younger, stronger, more self-confident and it gave a dangerous feeling.
What frightened me the most was his stare, who seemed to analyze me and the actual fact that I couldn't detect any cultivation from him. All my clan spirit begin the seven or nine pagoda or my sword, have a very good detection, even if I couldn't pinpoint his cultivation, there has never been the case when I couldn't detect any cultivation. And I was sure that he was hiding because I could feel how dangerous he was, that I would die if I fought him.
[I didn't expect so much change. She must have a part in it. He even recognized us, so he could detect my energy even when I am hiding, truly dangerous]
(So it wasn't an illusion? How can someone change so much in 3 months?)
[I don't know the details, but it surely related to Bibi Dong. His aura was similar to mine, even with better comprehension. It's really strange that some light spirit like his to give this dark feeling, he should have experiment another change or evolution. One thing is clear, he is more than a spirit king, at least in power]
(Should we be wary of him?)
[Of course, like with everyone, especially if they are stronger. At least, he owes us, I don't think he would directly attack us until he at least repay us]
I nodded and decide that it was enough for today, I returned to our house and cultivated calming me down in preparation for tomorrow's match.